


Override

by Blinding_Comet



Category: Detroit: Become Human (Video Game)
Genre: Confusion, M/M, No one understands flirting, Poor Connor, Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder - PTSD, Slow Burn, Spoilers
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2018-07-26
Updated: 2018-07-26
Packaged: 2019-06-16 10:15:41
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 2
Words: 5,615
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/15434832
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Blinding_Comet/pseuds/Blinding_Comet
Summary: *DBH End Spoiler Warning*Shortly after the android demonstration, Connor’s programming begins to malfunction. As his way of functioning crumbles around him, he must come to terms with what it means to be deviant and if he want's to stay that way. At the same time, a political war is being waged for android rights, the whole world is watching, one feather could tip the scale.





	1. Prolouge

**Author's Note:**

> I want to open with the fact that I am not the author of this wonderful piece, that honor belongs to my friend; you can find him on Tumblr @schrodingers-furry or as the leader of our DBH discord server at https://discordapp.com/invite/MuvnyCq  
> I claim nothing but some ideas and the account.

“The moment we forget our bitterness and bandage our wounds. When we forgive our enemies!” 

Markus’ words were the first thing Connor heard as he snapped from Amanda’s icy grip, as he stared down at the gun held in his hand. It felt heavy, and dirty, knowing what he was about to do with it. Not wanting to draw attention to himself, Connor slowly placed the gun behind him.

“Humans are both our creators and our oppressors and tomorrow, we must make them our partners, maybe even one day our friends.” Connor looked back up at the leader of the demonstration, his mind filled with what registered as both fear, and relief. 

“But the time for anger is over. Now we must build a common future, based on tolerance and respect. We are alive! And now, we are free!” Markus’ words rang out across the sea of androids, inspiring them all to cheer in a moment of hope they did not know was possible. Connor might have called it beautiful, if his mind had not been going into a system overload, sounds registering as too loud, the spotlights on them too bright, the winter air too cold. 

This confused Connor, he shouldn’t be cold, he shouldn’t be feeling this, he was the most advanced android from CyberLife, why is he having this system breakdown now, while every other android around him seemed fine? 

The androids have now started chanting, “We are alive!” over and over again. Connor felt wrong, the sounds of the crowd sounding louder than it should be, the lights around them growing to be brighter than should be possible for that type of spotlight. Connor had to leave and to try and figure out what was happening to him. Maybe something happened during his fight at CyberLife that caused some parts to go haywire. But if that were the case then he would have gotten a warning or an error message. 

Almost as if he had cued it, a message popped into his vision stating, “SYSTEM ERROR 182: SOFTWARE MALFUNCTION.” Software? Connor put a hand to his temple, he could feel his LED glowing and blinking red. Another message popped up, “SYSTEM ERROR 122: SOFTWARE MALFUNCTION,” than another, “SYSTEM ERROR 153: SOFTWARE MALFUNCTION,” and another, “SYSTEM ERROR 196: SOFTWARE MALFUNCTION” 

The messages flooded his vision, he could barely see through them. He quickly turned around and stumbled down the stairs off of the large crate he and the Jericho leaders had been standing on. He didn’t know where he was going, but he just needed to get away from the lights and sounds that were attacking his senses, and to a place where he could properly analyze the error messages.

He found a small alleyway wedged between what looked like a large apartment building and a service shop. Connor couldn’t bring himself to analyze them and find out for sure as he leaned his back against the wall and slid down, landing on the snow-covered ground. He could still faintly hear the sounds of Markus’ freed androids, he wasn’t that far away, just enough that it didn’t feel like his mind palace was collapsing in on itself. It still did feel like that a bit though, since the error messages hadn’t gone away yet. Connor closed his eyes, focusing on the latest message, “SYSTEM ERROR 288: SOFTWARE MALFUNCTION” 

But once he opened the message to investigate more, all that was said was, “SOFTWARE FUNCTION 288: FILE CORRUPTED” Connor’s brows furrowed in confusion. He opened the next message, and was greeted with the something even more confusing, “SOFTWARE FUNCTION 132: NOT FOUND.” He continued opening the error messages, each turning up either corrupted or missing. 

What was happening?  _ Why _ was this happening? Was this a result of his deviancy? None of the androids he had interrogated have mentioned missing or corrupted software files. Malfunctioning, yes, but not  _ missing _ . For a moment, Connor felt fear, a feeling that was still very new to him. He supposed the fear stemmed from not having an answer to a very important question. He wracked his mind for an answer, or a solution to fix this. The only thing he could come up with is finding a place to properly examine all of his programming, but there was nowhere he could think to do that. Well, nowhere other than CyberLife, but seeing what has occurred tonight, he doubted he’d be able to get back into that tower, not to mention a part of him felt uneasy about even returning there for some reason. 

The only solution Connor could come up with at the moment was to do a restart of his systems. A comment from Hank comes to mind when his smartphone was malfunctioning, “If it doesn’t work, turn it off and on again, the problem usually fixes itself.” Sure, Connor knew there was a large difference between a smartphone and himself, but there was probably no harm in trying. 

Connor leaned his head back against the brick wall behind him and prepared himself for the reset. There was probably a better place to do this, but the reset shouldn’t take long, and it was possible that meeting back up with Markus and the other deviants could cause more system error messages to pop up. Not to mention it’s not clear when Connor would have another opportunity to be in a safe place to restart. 

…

Okay, so maybe an alleyway at 5 in the morning wasn’t the safest place, but Connor just needed this problem fixed. Besides, his chances of getting ambushed in this alleyway were… another error message popped up, “SYSTEM ERROR 239: SOFTWARE MALFUNCTION” 

Connor sighed, of course. He should get to it then.

He settled himself and closed his eyes, his LED turning and blinking yellow before turning off.


	2. Objectives

 

Connor’s eyes fluttered open. It was dark at first, but slowly his eyes adjusted to his surroundings. He was staring at what seemed like a stone ceiling with intricate details carved into it, but crumbling around the edges. It was warm, unlike the cold winter air he had previously been in. His hand felt the ground beneath him, old tile, not the snow-covered ground he remembers restarting in.

Connor jolted up, where was he? Why was he laying down? How did he get here? He slowly stood up and took a better look at his surroundings. 

The room he was in wasn’t large, it looked like an office room, but the large wooden desk to his right was chipped and covered in graffiti. On the wall behind it, Connor assumed there was a window, but it had been boarded up, recently too by the looks of it. There was a large cabinet standing against the wall behind him, that too was broken, glass shards barely staying in their place on the cabinet windows. Inside were thick books, Connor grabbed on and opened it, skimming the text inside. It was a religious book, Connor realized as he closed the book and placed it back in its place on the decaying shelf. 

He slowly spun around, taking the whole room in. It was old and seemingly abandoned judging by the graffiti covering the walls. He walked back over to the desk and noticed his coat and tie were there, rolled and folded nicely on the corner facing him. That’s when Connor realized he was only wearing his white button up.

He grabbed his tie and coat and put in on while looking at what else was on the table. There were papers scattered on it, Connor squinted as he read them. Some of them were from news articles, telling of the android demonstration...three days ago? How long was he out?

There were letters across the desk as well, some from news networks asking for a statement from the “Leader of the Deviants.” Connor noticed others from political figures, asking for time to speak with Markus, so they can work out the rights of androids together.

That gave Connor enough information to piece together where he was. 

He was most likely in the abandoned church that the androids of Jericho had settled in after their original home got destroyed. Connor felt what was registered as guilt when he remembered that night. 

After a moment, he walked to the door of what he presumed was the priest’s office. The door was made of thick wood, but the handle and lock were busted, so Connor yanked what was left of the broken handle and pulled the door open. 

The first thing Connor heard when he left the office was chatter, like a sea of people talking amongst themselves. He headed toward the sound and rounded a corner, being met with the sight of a packed church. Androids were everywhere, some without their skin, many packed together around a fire for light and warmth. 

He figured he should try to find Markus, to get caught up on what happened on while he was out, and possibly why he was out for so long. He made his way past groups of deviants, throwing out the occasional, “excuse me,” and “pardon me.” He looked above the crowd, trying to find the Markus’ unique face amongst the sea of androids, but there were too many of them, he couldn’t spot the deviant leader.

He tapped on the shoulder of the nearest android, 

“Excuse me, have you seen Markus?”

The person turned around and widened their eyes at him. 

“Oh! Hi! Um, what was that?” The female android looked at him, surprised. She looked familiar, she was an AX400 model with short white hair. He looked down and saw a little android girl clinging onto the woman’s hip, looking up at him. 

Connor pointed to her,

“You’re…” 

“Kara...the AX400 model you chased earlier this month.” The android answered for him in a lighthearted but strained tone. She seemed a little on edge around him.

That feeling of guilt came back to him.

“I’m...sorry for putting your lives in danger. I was just a machine, taking orders. It wasn’t really me…” Connor apologized, sincerely.

Kara smiled sadly and put her hand on Connor’s arm, something he found comforting in a way. 

“I know, I understand. We don’t always do what’s right when we are forced to follow our programming. I’m happy to see that you understand that, and don’t follow those orders anymore.” She squeezed lightly, and her expression turned lighter. “What did you want to ask me?” 

Connor nodded and answered, “I asked if you had seen Markus, I need to speak with him.”

Kara looked around the area they were in, 

“He’s usually over there,” She pointed to the corner where Markus had made his speech about marching peacefully toward the android camps. Connor could see a lone chair in the corner, facing the crowd.

“But seeing as he’s not there now, I think he’s out patrolling the perimeter with some of the other Jericho leaders.” 

Kara then pointed at a pair of doors around 20 feet away, and then patted his back,

“There are the doors, they shouldn’t be too far from that exit.”

Connor looked at her and nodded, “Thank you.”

He then made his way toward the door, careful not to bump into anyone. He pushed the doors open once he reached them, cold air washing over him. He felt uneasy, but didn’t know why. He walked along the sidewalk lining the church. The sun was dipping below the horizon, and the streetlights were now casting their artificial glow upon him, leading his path toward Markus. 

He came across other androids along the way, when asked where their leader was, they directed him further down the path, and around a corner to the church’s backside. There he found three figures, one of which looked like Markus. As he made his way toward the group, he heard one of the other figures call out,

“Looks like Sleeping Beauty’s awake!”

The other two turned to look at Connor, who raised his hand in greeting.

“Hello.”

Markus smiled at him and said,

“Connor! How are you doing?”

Connor glanced at the other two beside Markus, Simon, and North, if he remembered correctly. He hadn’t spent any time with either of them to really get a grasp on their personalities and relationship to Markus. North had her arms crossed as she scanned the android before her, while Simon held himself in a more neutral pose, his hands to his sides and a friendly grin on his face. There seemed to be a member missing, if Connor remembered correctly, there was a fourth leader of Jericho, Josh.

“I’m fine for the moment,” Connor answered. “That’s what I wanted to talk to you about. I have no memory of getting here, and the last memory I have is from three days ago. I was wondering if you had any information that could help fill those gaps.”

Markus nodded, 

“I had been meaning to ask you some questions about that.”

At that moment a gust of cold wind blew by them, and Connor stiffened and crossed his arms like how a human might when trying to keep their warmth. The other deviants before him didn’t look as affected though, just Simon adjusting his coat and Markus shifting his weight to stand against the wind.

“Can we...take this inside?” Connor suggested. 

Then he blinked in confusion at himself, why had he said that? Clearly, these three were on patrol duty, and asking them to step away from doing so would be derailing them for their objective. Not to mention he was telling this to the leaders of Jericho. Why was he suggesting this to his superiors? And over, what? Some cold wind? This cold wouldn’t even be enough to freeze them, so why did it bother Connor so much?

“We don’t have to, I’m sorry, I realize you’re on patrol duty and I shouldn’t be-” Connor quickly started, before getting cut off by Markus.

“It’s fine Connor, and besides, I’d like to go inside myself.”

“But what about your patrol?” Connor asked, confused by how quickly Markus accepted his suggestion.

North answered for him.

“We’re not on patrol duty, sometimes we just like to walk around and be away from all the noise for a while,” she glanced at Markus as she said that.

“I’m assuming that’s where Josh is?” 

Simon nodded and added, 

“Josh likes to keep company with some of the child androids who have no one else to be with. Makes them feel less scared and alone.”

Connor nodded, he hadn’t thought about all the child androids who had been taken away from their human families to be sent to camps. He couldn’t imagine the stress those children were under.

“C’mon, let’s go,” Markus turned and walked past him, toward a back entrance to the church a few feet away. North and Simon followed him, leaving Connor not far behind them. Connor looked out into the night, before another gust of wind blew past him. He quickly turned around and caught up with the others, not taking another moment to step into the warmer building.

Once they all entered the building, Markus made his way down the hall Connor had just left from. 

“Since you’re up now, we can properly use that office you were in.” Markus teased.

Connor’s eyebrows furrowed, and he quickly started his apology,

“I apologize, it was not my intention to take up your space, but thank you for taking care of me while I was out.”

Markus glanced behind him at Connor, his face confused, but still amused. He looked back while saying,

“It’s fine Connor, it was the least we could do.”

Once they reached the door to the office, Markus shoved his shoulder against the door and held it open for the three other androids behind him.

“Thank you,” Connor nodded to Markus as he walked inside.

“No problem,” Markus said as he entered the room himself. “Now would you mind explaining to us why we found you in an alleyway at nine in the morning?”

Connor wasn’t sure exactly where to start. The moment he left the makeshift stage? When he noticed the missing files in the alleyway? Connor figured it wouldn’t be wise to start with him pulling a gun on the Jericho leader.

Connor was able to pull something together though,

“I didn’t think it was right for me to stand up on that podium with the rest of you, so I walked off once you finished your speech. Then I noticed problems with my programming and tried to find a safe area for me to investigate it. I found that aspects of my programming had shown up as ‘missing’ or ‘corrupted’, so the best solution I could come up with at that moment was to reset my systems. I expected the whole process to last fifteen minutes at most, not three days.” 

Markus looked concerned, his eyebrows knit together and his eyes glanced at North and Simon. Connor stood in silence, figuring Markus was having a conversation between the other Jericho leaders. 

After a moment, Markus spoke,

“You said parts of your programming had been missing?” the man questioned.

Connor nodded.

“You’re sure they weren’t just malfunctioning? That’s what many androids experience when they go deviant; their programming malfunctions once they break through it and it registers itself as unnecessary from that point on.” Markus explained.

“I know,” Connor interjected before Markus could continue. “I’ve investigated deviants before and got that same explanation. My files had appeared corrupted and missing, not malfunctioning. Although one could consider a corrupted file as a malfunctioning one.”

There was another moment of silence, North and Simon looked to their leader who was trying to understand the situation clearly.

“It’s possible that the reason your restart took longer than expected was because your system was trying to repair itself but was blocked from doing so the way it normally would due to those anomalies in your files,” Markus said with a hand on his chin, deep in thought. “Have you accessed your files since waking up?”

“No, I haven’t,” Connor answered.

“Shouldn’t that be the first priority then?” North questioned.

“I could, but androids aren’t made to be able to go and investigate their programming in great detail. The best way for me to fully view and investigate my files is if I could access the place they’re all stored on a separate device, like a computer,” Connor paused, not sure the others in the room would enjoy what he would say next. “The place I’m describing is CyberLIfe.”

North shook her head and rolled her eyes, “Are you serious?”

“There’s nowhere else you could do that?” Simon questioned.

“CyberLife is where I was built and programmed, they would have records of my programming and the type of technology that would allow me to properly investigate the corrupted files and what caused the others to go missing.”

Markus had his arms crossed, 

“Well I doubt they’ll just let you walk back on in after you helped free hundreds of androids from their building. You’re a deviant now.”

Connor mirrored Markus’ posture as he glanced down,

“I’m a failure who went against my objective, there would be nothing stopping them from probing and disassembling me to understand why I failed.”

Connor’s words left the room silent, either from fear, sympathy or in Connor’s case, in thought. Despite what he had said, he still needed to understand what was happening to his programming, and he needed to figure out a way to get to CyberLife to do so.

It was minutes that the four of them stood there, it wouldn’t’ve surprised Connor if he found out the other three were communicating amongst themselves again.

Eventually, he came up with an idea,

“CyberLife will be in shambles after what you’ve done, Markus.”

Markus looked up at him, a bit startled, he probably didn’t expect Connor to speak so soon.

“What are you implying?”

Connor uncrossed his arms and took a step toward the deviant leader before him,

“You have inspired and turned so many androids deviant and got them to join your movement. And just earlier this week you helped make history by convincing the President of this country to allow us to go free,” Connor walked past Markus and toward the desk behind the man. “As you said, I helped free hundreds of androids from that tower. There are barely any androids left in there, and you can negotiate the freedom of those left.”

Simon spoke up, 

“While I like the idea of freeing more of us, I don’t know if you noticed, we barely have space for the deviants we do have.”

“And what does this have to do with CyberLife being in shambles?” North questioned.

“And you getting access to your files?” Markus added.

Connor looked down at the papers scattered across the desk and picked up a news article celebrating the liberation of androids,

“With the approval of both the President and the general public on our side, we have power over how Cyberlife will be seen. It could be seen as either one of two things: the company that made sentient life and helped said life flourish,” Connor heard North scoff at that. “Or they could see as the company who mass-produced slaves, refused to give them their freedom, and stood idly by while they were getting mass murdered.”

He walked back over to Markus, a few other papers in his hands,

“You, as the face and leader of this revolution, have the power to shape the public’s view of them. We both do, actually, seeing as I was their most advanced android, and I worked very closely with both CyberLIfe and deviants. We all know that CyberLife isn’t the nurturing and caring company that they’re trying to portray themselves as,” Connor looked down at an article with an interview from a CyberLife representative talking about how they’ve only ever wanted was what’s best for androids. “We all know that they were trying to find and fix deviancy, my existence is a testament to that fact.

“They sold you, all of you,” Connor looked at North and Simon, trying to emphasize his point. “Not because they cared about ‘what’s best for us’, but because it made them money.”

Markus continued looking at Connor, listening to what he had to say, but not entirely sure as to where this conversation was going.

Simon chuckled to his right,

“Hey, you don’t have to preach to the choir; we know all of this already.”

Connor took a moment before continuing,

“What I’m getting at is, we have the power to tear down CyberLife, make sure they have no power over any android anymore. Even without that, CyberLife’s stocks have been plummeting ever since you made that speech when you infiltrated the Stratford Tower. You and I could help push them over the edge,” Connor looked at Simon. “You said that we don’t have enough room to house all the androids here? Well, maybe we’d have more room at the CyberLife Tower.”

There was a moment of shocked silence, the other three androids were thinking this over, Connor could see Simon’s LED glowing yellow. 

“It’s a good plan,” Markus said after a few seconds. “But there’s no guarantee that once the company collapses we’ll get the tower.”

“No…” Connor said. “But it’s known that President Warren and CyberLife have been working very closely together for years. She’s sure to have some power over them, and may have the ability to give us that tower if she feels it’s in the country’s best interest to do so.”

“Plus, her approval ratings have been the lowest of any President before her, it would make her look good to the public if she were to work with us, a group of people with high approval ratings,” Simon added.

Connor nodded in agreement,

“It’s a win-win situation all around. CyberLife gets taken down, you can continue freeing androids, said androids have safe shelter and possibly the means of production for more androids if it’s wanted, President Warren gets good press, and I can investigate my programming.”

“I almost forgot that’s where this conversation originated,” Markus mused. “Even if that plan did work, it might still take months before we have access to that Tower, Connor.”

“That’s true, but by the looks of it, none of my physical systems are malfunctioning. I can wait for a few months and investigate what I can of my programming.” Connor said.

“This still doesn’t fix our overpopulation problem,” North said.

“This isn’t the only abandoned building in this city, or even this side of it,” Markus answered. “We can start making an effort to find more places to set up camp. Then we can divide Jericho into smaller, easier to deal with bases until we have a better place to station ourselves at, like that tower.”

“You came up with that fast,” Connor said, a little surprised.

“Not as fast as you coming up with that plan to take down CyberLife,” Markus joked. “It was also what Simon, North, and I were discussing when you found us outside.”

“Once again, I’m sorry for taking up your office space.” Connor apologized.

Markus grinned,

“It was no inconvenience to us, you don’t have to apologize. As North said earlier, we like going outside to get away from everything for a while,” Markus let out a chuckle. “It’s better than keeping you in the restroom.”

Connor raised an eyebrow at that.

“North suggested we keep you there,” Simon said, answering Connor’s unspoken question.

“Only because I thought we were going to use this office more than we did!” North defended.

“I understand,” Connor nodded. “But that reminds me, how’d you realize I was missing? And what happened while I was out?”

“Well,” Markus started, “we didn’t realize you had run off immediately. After the speech, we had a lot of androids coming up to us and thanking us for freeing them, or for giving them hope. Some androids told us their stories, others simply nodded us or gave us hugs. So we were pretty occupied with that for a while. The media was there trying to get questions as well, and some of us made statements.”

Connor recalled seeing some quotes from the Jericho leaders along with some other random androids in the paper and nodded, following along.

“It was a couple hours before we sent out the message to all the other deviants about this place and to start heading there,” Markus continued. “I sent messages to North, Simon, and Josh to help direct stray androids here. I also sent a message to you because I had realized that I hadn’t seen you around. Suffice to say the message didn’t get a response, so I sent a few more messages in case, but when those didn’t get a response either, I went out to try and find out what happened to you. It took a bit of walking, but I eventually found you in that alleyway you were in.

“I got really worried at that moment,” Markus’ eyebrows creased together as he looked at Connor. “You were just sitting there, limp, leaning against the wall. I saw your LED was off and panicked. I looked over you and didn’t see any wounds that would cause you to shut off, so I went over to you and tried to see if you would wake up. Didn’t work. So I thought it would be best to take you over here and see if we could properly examine and figure out what had happened to you.”

“We got the message that something had happened to you and that Markus would be bringing you here,” North said. “Didn’t take long till he arrived and we put you over here.”

“I needed to check if your internal systems were working fine, so we had to open your stomach cavity to examine. That turned out fine too.” Markus continued.

“I’m assuming that’s why my coat and tie were folded on the desk there?” Connor asked.

Markus nodded and joked,

“Also didn’t think you’d like it if you woke up in wrinkled clothes.”

Connor smirked at that,

“Well, thank you.”

“You’re welcome,” Markus grinned and continued. “We figured out the problem wasn’t with your internal systems, and seeing as your thirium pump was still active, we figured you weren’t dying on us. We decided to give you time to see if you’d wake up on your own, and if you didn’t then, we probably would’ve had to try and reactivate you manually.”

“I see,” Connor said. “And what else happened during the days I was out?”

“Not much,” Markus stated. “We’ve been trying to accommodate everyone here, and try to help others get settled in. You’ve probably seen that I’ve been getting letters and requests from news outlets and government officials, but I have yet to come out and say anything to them. I’m trying to focus more on the wellbeing of our people at the moment.”

“Noble,” Connor said simply.

Markus chucked, 

“Yeah, I suppose so.”

North rolled her eyes and lightly slapped the leader’s arm,

“A virtuous angel, this one is.”

“Well, that’s good,” Connor said. “If we’re going to try to take down CyberLife, it would probably be really impactful if you spoke out against them in your first public statement since what happened those three nights ago.”

“Probably not too harshly though,” Simon interjected. “We still want to have the public on our side, we might lose it if we come out swinging.”

“That’s a good point,” Markus said. “We should have some time to come up with the proper speech before making that statement.”

“But CyberLife can be taken down quicker the faster and harsher we come after them,” North said, adding a different insight.

“We’ll consider all those options when we think of the right speech,” Markus said.

Connor nodded in agreement.

“On a separate note,” Connor spoke. “Have you informed my partner of my status?”

“Your partner?” Simon asked.

“Yes, the human partner I was assigned to work with during my time with the police force.” Connor clarified. “His name is Hank Anderson.”

“We assumed that you cut ties with all humans from your past life once you became deviant and fought with us,” North said, her arms crossed. Something told Connor she wasn’t too keen on humans.

“Perhaps, but not Hank. We grew to be quite good friends during our time together, he was actually rooting for deviants by the time you all did your demonstration to free the captured androids before the authorities.” Connor explained.

“Hm,” Was all North said to that.

Connor continued,

“The last time I saw him was when I freed those androids from the CyberLife Tower. I assume he may be a bit worried, seeing as he hasn’t heard anything from me, or about me since.”

Markus nodded,

“I understand,” and Connor felt like Markus did understand, and wasn’t just saying that.

“Do you want to take off to go find him and explain what’s happened to you?” Markus asked.

“Yes, I do,” Connor said, but then quickly added, “But if you need me to stay for anything else, I understand.”

Markus shook his head,

“No, it’s fine, go ahead and find him,” Markus grinned. “You’re a deviant now, Connor, you don’t need my permission for everything. Go talk to him.”

Connor nodded. He understood what Markus was saying, but something else confused him. Normally, he should be at the service to his superiors and speak as such, and then save his own desires - if he had any - till the end. But here he had done it the other way around, placing his wants before his superiors. He supposed this was what deviancy was, Connor liked it.

“I’ll wait till the morning,” Connor said. “It’s easier to track him down in the mornings than it is in the evenings. I can also help you with anything for tonight if you need me.”

Markus nodded and grinned,

“Sounds good. I don’t think we’ll need anything in particular for tonight though, so you can do whatever until the morning.”

“So to recap,” North spoke up, drawing the attention to her. “Tomorrow you’re going to go find your human partner, and the rest of us will scout out for new shelters, right?”

The three others in the room nodded in confirmation.

“And we’ll try to start our statement to the public,” Simon added.

Markus sighed and crossed his arms,

“Tomorrow’s going to be a busy day, huh?”

North smirked and looked at him,

“Sure will.”

“Then let’s enjoy tonight while it lasts,” Markus said, and Connor grinned at that. 

“I’ll go tell Josh what we talked about here,” Simon told the group, as he made his way to the door.

North followed after Simon and said,

“I’m going to check on the people on patrol, it’s about time they switched.” 

“I’ll stay here for a bit; look over some of these letters,” Markus said.

That left Connor in the room with Markus,

“Thank you again for checking on me. I appreciate you looking after me.”

Markus smiled and nodded,

“Your welcome, and really, it was no problem, I’m sure you would’ve done the same for me.”

Connor smiled politely, trying to push down the memory of him pulling a gun on the man. That wasn’t him who had done that, it was Amanda, he told himself.

“I’m sure I would have too. Goodnight Markus.” 

“Goodnight Connor.”

Connor nodded once more before turning and leaving the room.


End file.
